AD Interviews: Meinhard von Gerkan, gmp architekten

We recently had the opportunity to interviewgmp architekten founding partner, Meinhard von Gerkan. Born in 1935 in Riga/Latvia, Gerkan completed his architectural studies in 1964 at the Carolo Wilhelmina Technical University in Braunschweig. In 1965 he co-founded with Volkwin Marg, von Gerkan, Marg and partners. They have completed together over 260 buildings, among them the Berlin-Tegel Airport (competition, 1st place 1965, built in 1970-75), the Berlin Central Station, Villa Guna, Christ Pavilion, and the Lingang New City, been recognized nationally and internationally for their designs and competition proposals.

Meinhard von Gerkan has also dedicated time to architectural education serving as a professor at multiple institutions including Hamburg’s Free Academy of Arts and Japan’s Nihon University in Tokyo. His interest in the training of architects resulted in the creation of a foundation to promote architectural training in 2007: the Academy for Architectural Culture. He has regarded this as one of his most important projects.

“The architect has a particular social responsibility since architecture is an art with social obligation and use.”

Our profession has a big component of passion, and Meinhard was full of it. It was inspiring to interview him, and I hope you enjoy this video.